Investment banker Steve Smith, who lives in Palm Beach’s Estate Section, knows Bolognese-style pasta (shown above, with Caesar salad) is a staple at many restaurants, “but Bice’s is the best,” he says. It’s so good that Smith and his wife, Austin, know that their kids “would eat it for breakfast,” Smith adds, referring to their three youngest children—Cooper, 10, Savannah, 9 and Mackenzie, 8 (Smith also has an adult son, Connor).

For the Bolognese, Bice’s executive chef Elmer N. Saravia starts with a half-and-half mix of free-range veal and ground beef, which he cooks with onions, celery, carrots, rosemary and porcini mushrooms. He then adds red wine, ripe Italian plum tomatoes and tomato paste, and simmers it all for more than two hours. The sauce is served over tagliolini, a paper-thin, ribbon-like noodle.

Smith often orders an accompanying Caesar salad; Saravia’s dressing for it uses traditional ingredients along with his own proprietary touches.

Nancy Richter is an experienced baker, but “not a chocolate baker, so it’s nice when I go out to have something I wouldn’t make myself. And this is so good,” she says, referring to the decadent torte at HMF at The Breakers.

HMF’s Gianduja chocolate torte

As crafted by Anthony Sicignano, executive chef of the resort’s restaurants, the dessert’s base is a rich, dense torte made with Gianduja, an Italian hazelnut-laced chocolate. The torte is topped with a scoop of salted-caramel gelato and strips of candied orange peel. “The torte is very creamy, which goes well with the gelato,” says Sicignano.

The cake, meanwhile, is surrounded by a scattering of toasted salty-and-sweet brittle made with caramel-drenched pine nuts, and the entire dish is finished with a sprinkling of flaked Maldon sea salt. “I love this torte,” says Richter, “but there really isn’t a sweet I don’t like.”